More insights into life, death, memories, love and kangaroos that one has a right to expect in any single volume

An intimate pleasure

Literature's answer to David Lynch

These stories are rich in Murakami magic... a collection that all readers will enjoy

Sharp but humane observation...as unforgettable as it is untypical

Although Murakami's style and deadpan humour are wonderfully distinctive, his emotional territory is more familiar - remorse, unresolved confusion, sudden epiphanies - though heightened by the surreal... For all its peculiarity, Planet Murakami offers a recognisable landscape of our fears

Disarming, amusing and reveals his lightness of touch

A beguiling collection that shows off Murakami's bold inventiveness and deep compassion

Murakami is excellent at creating an intense mood in a swift few lines... always provocative and never less than engaging

By turns disturbing and delightful, funny strange and funny ha-ha...Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is a handsome volume of prose, every bit as substantial as a novel...They show him at his very best; not as a cult novelist but as a really first-rate writer of short fiction

Funny but also sad and wise

Murakami’s fictional world is extraordinary.

Julian Barnes reminds us what an exhilarating experience it can be to read a really good critic.

A compulsive page-turner.

Barnes’s passion for his writers is infectious.

Blissfully intelligent.

The temptation to turn away is powerful, but the rewards for resisting it are considerable. These essays combine a scholarly breadth of knowledge with a powerful sense of the absurdities of the creative life.

Through the Window is a wonderful and very interesting collection of essays that rewards close, and also measured, reading.

A masterclass display of versatility... mood and style in these richly concise, crisply written pieces are confidently varied, too... adding vitality to the virtuosity is a terrific ear for idiomatic speech

A writer who reveals the power of the short story to speak for our time

O’Connor is a gifted storyteller… [He] has a wonderful ear for dialogue and is a master of the telling phrase

This collection is beautiful; full of pure, simple truths that linger long in the mind